Fly swatter



Jul 17, 1934. s. G. MONROE ET AL FLY SWATTER Filed 001;. 6,1933 19 6 0 5 x5 2 7' 4 73 76 m as 7/ 75' I 4 Patented July 17, 1934 PATENT OFFICE FLY SWATTER Stanley G. ,Monroe and Frank Shepherd,

' Akron, Ohio Application October 6, 1933, Serial No. 692,419

' In Canada June 30, 1933 6 Claims. (01. 43-137) This invention, relating to fly swatters, provides an improvement upon the implement disclosed in our prior Patent 1,882,291 of Oct.- 11,.

1932, which was adapted to be formed of a flexible, resilient and sanitary non-metallic material such as rubber and comprised essentially a series of spaced fingers or tines, adjacent ones of which were connected by webs at intermediate points, the fingers being integrally formed upon a yoke provided with a handle.

The principal objects of our present invention are to impart better flexing and striking characteristics to the swatter, to avoid objectionable crossing or tangling of the fingers, and to decrease the cost of manufacture.

experience and discovery have shown that, for greater efficiency, the lash fingers must be less independent and have increased coaction with each other, and that there should be a 26 flexible rubber spring member of substantial stiffness between the forward end of the rigid stem or handle and the roots of the lash fingers.

Of the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of our improved swatter, with the ends of certain fingers spread laterally out of normal position to show their separability and the webbed connection of their ribs in pairs.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section approximately 39 on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are detail cross sections onthe correspondingly numbered lines of Figs. 1

Fig. 6 is an edge view on asmaller scale illustrating the droop of portions of the swat ter body when the handle is upheld horizontally and the body positioned flatwise.

In the drawing, a paddle-shaped, flat swatter body 10, adapted to be made of flexible, non-marring and easily-cleansed material such assoft rubber composition vulcanized in a mold, is formed with a rearward base part including an arcuate reinforcing yoke or backbone portion 11, which is considerably thickened for relative stiffness as compared with other parts of the body, and provided in the middle back portion of said yoke with an integral short stem 12 formed with socket holes for the reception of a twisted wire handle 13.

' Between the sides or arms of the yoke, which taper longitudinally in width and thickness toward their outer ends, the body has a continuous, imperforate base web 14, formed on both faces with longitudinal, parallel reinforcing ribs 15, preferably of polygonal section and con- Our further nected with thinner, individual web portions 16, the spacing of the ribs preferably "being about ten to the inch, although this and the size and direction of the ribs may be varied, so long as the ribs or equivalent stiffening or reinforcement extend in a general longitudinal direction, to control the bending or drooping characteristics of the body 10 as a whole, as hereinafter pointed out in connection with Fig. 6. The base Web terminates forwardly in a transverse rib 17, raised on both faces above the thin web portions 16 but of less thickness than the ribs 15. The longitudinal ribs 15 and intervening thin web portions 16 are continued beyond the transverse rib 17 to form the principal striking or lash portion 18 of the swatter body and are there divided into fingers, tines or lashes 19 by longitudinal cuts between the ribs through the thin web portions 16 and up or nearly up. to the rib 17. These cutsare preferably made by shears or a cutting die, without removal of material, after the article has been removed from its vulcanizing mold, so that the fingers, when not distorted, have practically zero spacing between them. As the swatter body, normal to the plane thereof, should preferably be stiller in its base web portion 14 than in the lash portion 18, it will be noted by comparing Figs. 3 and 5 that the thickness of the individual webs 16 between the ribs 15 is made somewhat greater in said base web than in the lash portion.

While each finger might include only one rib, greater lateral stiffness of said fingers in the plane of the swatter is obtained, resulting in less tendency of the fingers to cross and tangle with each other, by including at least two ribs 1 and an individual web 16 in each finger, bu a greater number than two is somewhat less desirable than two. Thus the width of each finger is greater than its thickness, desirable relative stiffness in both planes is obtained, and the maximum effective striking surface is secured with the minimum use of material. A pair of opposite ribs in the lash portion may be considered an individual finger or finger member, a plurality of which, together with the connectlng web, constitute a composite finger or lash. For longitudinally reinforcing the middle of the base portion, its yoke 11 is provided with a forwardly-extending cusp or projection 20, longitudinally tapering in both planes and shown as terminating substantially at the transverse rib 17, although the point of forward termination might be otherwise located. This imparts to the yoke a substantial W-shape with curving outlines, divides the base web 14 into two equal portions and contributes materially to the proper flexing and striking characteristics of the implement.

When the swatter is upheld horizontally and flatwise as seen in Fig. 6, the forward part of its body including the lash portion and the front part of the base portion droops in a gradual curve to a maximum depth below the horizontal of about two-fifths the. length of said body, and the sides sag more than the middle, while the back part of the base, including most of the yoke 11, remains substantially straight or horizontal transversely thereof.

In connection with a properly chosen rubber composition'of suitable stiflness, and structual features as above set forth, it has been found that this swatter is most effective when the longitudinal distance through which the lateral separation of the fingers 19 is made to extend is of the general order of approximately one-half of the length of the body 10 from its junction with the stem 12 to the forward edge of the lash portion, by the cutting apart of said fingers substantially back to the transverse rib 1'7 as previously described. Any greatly smaller extent of the free lashes tends to fan the fly away without a killing blow, and any greatly larger extent tends to produce too much lateral spreading of the fingers in striking. The present invention differs from all previous rubber lash swatters of which we are aware in that the spacing and relative stiffness of the lash fingers and their relation to the base are such that they act to a much greater extent collectively or in unison than heretofore, while permitting the air to pass through during a blow and retaining sumcient independent motion to reach their object on an irregular surface; and in that a reinforced base web of substantial length, which acts as a rubber spring member of greater stiffness than the lash portion, is interposed between said lash portion and the end of the rigid handle, so that the greatest bending occurs, not immediately in front of the handle end, but in the front region of said base web, and said bending is properly distributed throughout the length of the rubber swatter body. This rubber spring member makes for greater durability of the swatter and provides a very snappy whip action which increases its effectiveness in killing flies and flicking away their remains.

As the result of these improvements, the swatter may be manipulated with a better whip-lash action in all parts of itswidth and is very effective in killing flies and at the same time sweeping them oil. the surface on which they have alighted without crushing them upon said surface or retaining them in apertures of the implement. Its fingers are not so apt to cross and tangle or miss the fly as those of our former patent, the cost of manufacture is lowered by avoidance of a perforate, grid-like base and of relatively wide spaces between fingers, andits capacity for killing the insects on or near edge corners of furniture etc. or adjacent the hollow corners of walls is considerably improved.

Various changes in the details of embodiment could be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims. i

We claim:

1. An elastic rubber fly swatter body comprising a rearward base portion having a handleattaching member and reinforced around the edges and also longitudinally reinforced in the middle region thereof to constitute a relativelystiff spring member, and a forward lash portion of greater flexibility composed of longitudinally ribbed lash fingers of greater width than thickness, extending in substantially zero spaced relation throughout their length from the base portion.

2. A fiy swatter comprising a rearward flexible rubber base protion including a reinforcing yoke and a substantially imperforate intervening web having a multiplicity of reinforcing ribs distributed over its width and providing a longitudinal stiffening for the web, and a forward flexible rubber lash portion composed of longitudinallyribbed lash fingers of greater width than thickness, extending in substantially zero spaced relation throughout their length from the base portion.

3. A fly swatter integrally formed of elastic rubber material and comprising a rearward base portion constituting a relatively-stiff spring member and a forward lash portion thereon longitudinally ribbed on both sides and composed of fingers cut apart throughout their length from the base portion to provide substantially zero spacing between them when flat, each finger including at least two longitudinal ribs and an intervening thinner web.

4. A fly swatter integrally formed of flexible, non-metallic material and comprising a base .portion constituting a relatively-stiif spring member and a connected lash portion of greater flexibility composed of substantially zero spaced fingers of greater width than thickness, both portions being longitudinally ribbed on both sides and having relatively thin webs connecting adjacent ribs throughout their length.

5. A flexible rubber fly swatter comprising a body having integral base and lash portions ribbed on both sides for longitudinal reinforcement and provided with longitudinally tapering back, side and middle thickened reinforcements in the base portion, said lash portion comprising longitudinally r-ibbed lash fingers of greater width than thickness extending in substantially zero spaced relation throughout their length from the base portion, the swatter, when upheld longitudinally flatwise, assuming a downward droop of the lash and forward part of the base portions, with the sides sagging more than the middle while the back part of the base remains substantially straight transversely thereof.

6. A flexible fly-swatter body of gradually decreasing stiifness from the rear end to the front region thereof and comprising a rubber base web constituting a relatively-stiff spring member and rearwardly formed with an integral short stem for detachably receiving the end of a rigid handle and with an integral, middle, thickened reinforcement extending and tapering forwardly from said stem, and a rubber lash portion of substantially the same length as, and greater flexibility than said base web, formed on the forward edge of the latter and divided into separate lash fingers of substantially zero spacing .which are stiffened by longitudinal ribbing.

- STANLEY G. MONROE.

FRANK SHEPHERD. 

